Hello All,
I'm still a little new to Pathfinder, but I've got experience with every version of D&D. I've always been drawn to the Wizard class in my time roleplaying, not just because of its almighty power, but Wizards have always interested me. Needless to say, the are my favorite class, with Fighter being a close second - total polar opposite ends of the spectrum, I know, but I feel like these two classes are legitimate 'blank slates' that one can customize however they wish. I guess Cleric can be considered as much as well, but I'm not big on the whole being a instrument of a God thing.
In any case, I digress. I'm trying to make a Wizard for an upcoming game I'm seeking to be a part of. It's open-ended and I plan on playing one of the two villains in the game. This is my first time making a Wizard in Pathfinder and I find the options available, much like that of a Fighter, creating a huge amount of options. For us, anything on SRD is allowed with the only caveat being all core races are available, in addition to Aasimar and Tiefling and no firearms/futuristic stuff.
For a villain, I've decided to go Tiefling; there's something appealing from a roleplaying perspective to play a fiend-born, especially a villain who is trying to pull strings from the shadows, similar to Manshoon.
As a Tiefling, I'm going to take Prehensile Tail as a trait to replace Fiendish Sorcery since I'm not playing a sorcerer and swift metamagic rods + multiple roleplaying aspects of this seem fun (Sleight of Hand with a tail? WHAT?). I was looking at Vestigal Wings, but playing an evil wizard who pulls strings from the shadows, I could see stealth and bluff being reasonably attractive as RP options (I also have good Dexterity score, which I'll cover later).
In any case, we rolled for our ability scores and I rolled a 7, 16, 16, 15, 13 and a 9 - decent scores for a Wizard. With the Tiefling Racial modifiers, my scores are as follows:
STR: 7
DEX: 18
CON: 15
INT: 18
WIS: 13
CHA: 7
A very respectable array for secondary stats, but Int is going to be missing a +1 throughout his entire level span. The nice part about the rolls is the Dex score allows me to negate having to grab an initiative trait and also means I can get away with 1 or 2 points in the Fly skill instead of 4-5. It also means I can do some interesting stuff with Dexterity skills, like stealth, sleight of hand, escape artist, etc. Considering I'll have 6 starting skills, and more at later levels, I'll be able to diversify outside the realm of just INT skills.
I'm choosing to go Divination (Foresight) as the spell school specialization and starting with Enchantment and Necromancy as my opposition schools. After level 10, I plan on reclaiming Necromancy with the Opposition Research Arcane Discovery. For this type of campaign, it will be very worthwhile to take this school over conjuration or evocation in my belief, because I know I will have to be constantly planning ahead and being careful with my actions, as well as always winning initiative. Many of the Divination spells allow RAW meta-gaming through keen use and scouting and I'll need to constantly be ahead of the heroes and heroic NPCs. And, with a handful of preferred spells, I can also sacrifice the slot for a more general utility spell.
My questions really pertain for a few things and all are both trait and feat related.
For traits, since I have 18 dexterity, I don't see myself as really needed to take reactionary, or any +2 initiative trait. So, I'm thinking of taking Magical Lineage and Gifted Adept. I know that its a good idea to plan this to a spell that you will want to apply Spell Perfection, so I'm curious to what spell is recommended for this. I've heard Fireball is excellent as well as Ball Lightning with Dazing Spell as a metamagic feat. I'm favoring Ball Lightning a little because of the battlefield control and the ability to seriously lock down an enemy. With Forewarned, Prescience and Foretell, I could see two orbs of dazing lightning that could be moved about as a move action, that cause another save against daze if the first is passed rather potent. Acting first and dropping two orbs on the field of battle to lock down two foes or more at later levels with Reflex saves. That's mean. Are there any other suggestions for these two traits? Is Electricity a better element than fire for SR reasons?
Also, I'm curious on feat progression. At level 1, I'm taking Improved Initiative. So with Forewarned, I will have +13 to initiative at level 1 (4 DEX mod + 4 Improved Initiative + 4 Initiative from Greensting Scorpion + 1 Initiative from Forewarned).
I will say that I have Improved Familiar as a lock at level 7 for an Imp, Opposition Research: Necromancy at level 9 and Spell Perfection: (spell still up in the air) at level 15. Also, I will need to take Heighten Spell, Preferred Spell: (whatever spell is chosen for spell perfection), Dazing Spell, Spell Penetration and Preferred Spell Penetration.
I will say, I'm allowed the Leadership feat as well and I plan on taking it soon after it become available. I plan on having my cohort be a crafter, so I'm not sure if it is worthwhile to put crafting feats on the PC.
So my initial feat thought process is:
Level 1: Improved Initiative
Level 3: Heighten Spell
Level 5 (2): Preferred Spell: (Spell chosen for Spell Perfection is applicable) or Fast Study, Spell Penetration
Level 7: Improved Familiar
Level 9: Fast Study or Preferred Spell: Spell chosen for Spell Perfection is applicable)
Level 10: Opposition Research: Necromancy
Level 11: Leadership
Level 13: Dazing Spell
Level 15 (2): Greater Spell Penetration, Spell Perfection: (spell chosen)
Does anyone have alternative suggestions for feat progression or alternative traits? All your thoughts are appreciated!
Is that because there isn't really a big arsenal of spell to use at that level?
The only reason I was thinking of grabbing heighten spell there is because the build is fairly feat starved so it was the one place I could see sneaking that in.
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Is that because there isn't really a big arsenal of spell to use at that level?
The only reason I was thinking of grabbing heighten spell there is because the build is fairly feat starved so it was the one place I could see sneaking that in.
If you don't mind having a feat that will be useless for several levels, sure. Even if you planned on throwing heighten there, I would take toughness and retrain it to heighten when you can actually get benefit from a spell being heightened.
I was under the impression that only Fighters could retrain feats, wizard can as well? If that is so, Toughness definitely seems like the better option.
Thank you Imbicatus.
Does anyone have recommendations for which spell to do mastery on and why? I've seen Fireball and Ball Lightning mentioned the most on other threads, with dazing spell, due to the AOE/Battlefield control. I'm open to any suggestions if they make sense.